Curse

mgrape · Mar 21, 2005, 08:33 AM // 08:33

Topic pretty much says it all. Trying to figure out the best way to approach caster shutdown using a r/me. Started out using illusion skills, switched to domination, but it seems there are better illusion skills later on. Any ideas/suggestions?

Kyraith Mentara · Mar 21, 2005, 09:02 AM // 09:02

...im confused, besides Arcane Conundrum and Migraine which illusion skills are caster shutdown?

I always thought of illusion as anti melee

gangguard · Mar 21, 2005, 02:30 PM // 14:30

i think domination cuz like: Backfire, Energy burn?

Sausaletus Rex · Mar 21, 2005, 04:00 PM // 16:00

Illusion - Hexes. You'll snare the enemy, making them easier to hit with your bow shots or for your Warrior friends to pound on them, DOT them, making them die quicker, or lengthen their casting time, making it harder for them to do their job. A good option if you want to hurt them but don't want to spend a lot of time away from your Ranger skills to do so. Hexes are fire and forget, they'll keep working as you pound away, although you'll have to worry about removal.

Domination - Interruption and skill locks. It's a bit more involved than Illusion, as you'll need to watch and wait for your target to act before you can nail them, in most cases, requiring you to put a lot of focus into shutting down a caster, but it can be a lot more effective in preventing them from doing much of anything. Domination also offers soem direct, armor ignoring damage, but you already have a lot of damage potential as a Ranger. It's a nice option if you're worried about one caster and want to bury them in the sand and then sit on their head - you just won't be able to zap any other casters until that one's gone.

Inspiration - Energy denial. Yeah, you didn't mention it, but it's another way to go. The idea here is to use things like Energy Tap and all to strip the energy from a caster. No energy = no spells. And it has the nice side-bonus of keeping you in energy in order to keep casting whatever it is you want to cast. A nice option if you're worried about your own energy.

But, really, the best caster disruption for a Ran/Mes? Debilitating Shot. It's massive energy denial at low cost - with high Expertise - with decent damage which you can buff up. Toss in an interrupt like Power Leak or Power Drain or r Distracting Shot, a hex like Arcane Conundrum or condition like Concussion Shot and you've ruined a caster's day with slots to spare.

Sarus · Mar 21, 2005, 04:47 PM // 16:47

Quote:

Inspiration - Energy denial. Yeah, you didn't mention it, but it's another way to go. The idea here is to use things like Energy Tap and all to strip the energy from a caster. No energy = no spells. And it has the nice side-bonus of keeping you in energy in order to keep casting whatever it is you want to cast. A nice option if you're worried about your own energy.

Just wanted to add that inspiration does have one interrupt, Power Drain which not only interrupts but steals a massive amount of energy at high inspiration. Even at moderate inspiration levels it's pretty good.

The downside of course if that you have to hit them when they are casting to do anything otherwise it is a waste.

oh and just noticed you mentioned it at the end hehe. sorry.

Sausaletus Rex · Mar 21, 2005, 05:38 PM // 17:38

Inspiration also has Leech Signet for interrupting, too. It's not quite as good as Power Drain, although with proper care it can be effective. So you can go inspiration for a denial/interrupt build, sure, or even just an interrupt, but I was trying to point out that there's another way of going about caster disruption which Inspiration is best suited to. Domination, for that matter, can do energy denial, too, with Power Leak among other things. There's a lot of ways you can go with things but the easiest and most common would be what I stated above.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sarus

The downside of course if that you have to hit them when they are casting to do anything otherwise it is a waste.

That's a downside to all of the Mesmer interrupts, with the exception of Leech Signet - which will interrupt anyway, you only gain energy when you hit a spell, Ineptitude - which is a hex which will interrupt, and Cry of Frustration (all of which have their own problems), though, as I said playing with interrupts is a bit more involved and time-sensitive than other popular ways of disrupting a caster. You have to hit those spells or you're recharging for a while. That means you're watching for your target to start casting and then trying to figure out if you a)can interrupt that skill and b)want to interrupt that skill. Unlike, say, dropping Arcane Conundrum on a caster it's more intricate and, well, twitchy, so it's not for everyone. Still, it's not overly hard, with practice and patience you'll get used to it (Although, like me, having a good knowledge of what skills are out there is a help. At this point I can pretty much recognize the commonly used skills by icon or casting animations alone. Yeah, it's sad...) it's just not something that everyone can just pick up and excel at right away.

whiskas · Mar 21, 2005, 07:02 PM // 19:02

Domination and illusion work very well together. Illusion skills are good at getting your enemy to cast something on themselves. What I like to do is put backfire on a monk, and then throw a conjure phantasm on them, and (if they didn't notice the backfire) they'll put on something like healing breeze or orison, and bam, 100+ damage, which gets them to try to heal themselves again, and bam, another 100 damage. By the time they know whats happening, they'll be running around like a greased pig waiting for the BF to wear off.

Sarus · Mar 21, 2005, 07:54 PM // 19:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sarus
The downside of course if that you have to hit them when they are casting to do anything otherwise it is a waste.

Sorry, I meant the downside to using interrupts as opposed to energy denial which you pointed out as being the simplest way to do things (and I agree). Since I can't recognize spells by the animation yet I just use arcane conundrum as my crutch to make sure I have time to get even the 1 second cast time spells. Of course that means you need 2 attribute lines since conundrum is illusion as opposed to inspiration or domination but not all of us are at Saus's level of play yet hehe.

Sausaletus Rex · Mar 22, 2005, 02:06 AM // 02:06

My mistake, Sarus, I can see what you meant now. And, yes, it's a valid point. Energydenial is, like hexing your opposition a less involved way of doing things and one far less dependant on your opponent's actions being what you expect. As Whiskass points out, the varying ways of stopping a caster are even better when combined with one another.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sarus

Of course that means you need 2 attribute lines since conundrum is illusion as opposed to inspiration or domination but not all of us are at Saus's level of play yet heh

Oh, don't get me wrong. I stink. I'm a scrub. I get by thanks to my superior knowledge of and familiarity with things - I know most skills, I know most strategies, I know most maps, and the ones I don't aren't so dissimlar from the ones I do, so I'm hard to outplan or outguess and that gives me an edge - I've read the book, I know the "right play" and I try to make it time in and time out. That doesn't mean I'm anything special, though. I'm atrocious and far from the best player and probably never will be anything close to it. But, I'm not the worst player either and just as I'm not far from the bottom, I'm not far from the top, too. No one's really all that good as a player, as a stragist, as anything but a student when it comes to Guild Wars. Those who think they're awesome are fooling themselves, once people can play the game day in and day out then what's being used, what's being considered, what's being done now will be a distant memory, just as distant and laughable as what happened to work best during the WPE or the E3 events. And those who think they're pathetic aren't really as bad as they think. With time, patience, and practice, and, of course, the right knowledge they can be better. It's those who can grow and adapt who'll see the most success in GW, so people who aren't so sure that they're on the right track and will stay on that path long after it's become the one to avoid are going to be the ones who are ahead in the long run.

Besides, you don't need to spec too much Illusion to make Arcane Conundrum useful. If it stays around for the full 26 seconds at Illusion 12, you're lucky or your team's flattened anyone who can remove a hex at all. And, at Ill 8 or 9, you're pretty close to 100% efficiency in terms of how long the skill will last versus its recharge. You'll get a few more seconds, which means you'll spend less energy overall, if you go higher, but you don't need to really do so. Mesmers, as alway, can afford that 8 a lot more than other professions. Take Inspiration 10 instead of 12 and you can have Illusion of 8. Or vice versa. A Mesmer character can afford Dom/Ill/Ins at decent enough levels to make them useful easily and still have points left over. Maybe not with a Ran/Mes who'll need decent Expertise and Marksmanship, too, but you can go 8/6 instead of 10, for example (From my beloved base 11/10/10 build).